Once again Nordic Game Week is going to be huge! At the moment we have 230+ registered libraries, schools, youth centers, businesses etc who are organizing a multitude of activities during the Nordic Game Week.

Game play with mobile devices has now bypassed all other forms of digital play, including playing of computer games and console video games (source). This year’s competition will feature the mobile game Big Bang Legends (available for Apple and Android devices). As the game is non-competitive, we’ve created a speedrun-challenge for the Nordic Game Week Competition.

A speedrun is a play-through of a video game performed with the intention of completing it as fast as possible. Speedruns may cover a whole game or a selected part, such as a single level. While all speedruns aim for quick completion, some speedruns are characterized by additional rules that players promise to obey, such as collecting all key items. Players attempt speedruns mainly to challenge themselves and to entertain and compete with others (source).

Object of the NGW Speedrun Challenge is to pass the first three islands of the game as fast as possible.

Each island has three maps, so the speedrun consists of navigating nine maps as fast as possible. A normal speedrun for the three levels will probably be about 2-3 minutes, with the best times approaching one minute.

Prizes

Stickers and reflectors to win instantly when beating a previous best time.

10 bags full of Big Bang Legends merchandise and games

A Trip to visit CERN! For two persons!

All who participate have a chance to win the trip, regardless of the speed, but only the fastest players from 10 different local events will win a bag full of gaming fun.

What you need

One smartphone or a tablet (no internet required after downloading the game).

Setup

Start the game and play through the first three maps (9 levels), so the tutorials and animations are the same for all participants.

Get some cards or post-it stickers for the fastest times and put the best time visible near the game setup.

Print the numbered list for the participants to enter their contact info (email of phone) after participating in the challenge if they wish to participate in the raffle for the Trip to CERN.

Find a table for playing the game and make a timer available for the players to operate by themselves. You can use a laptop or just put a keyboard on the table. Pushing SPACEBAR on the keyboard will start and stop the timer linked above. It’s important that starting the timer and stopping the timer are done by the players, so that the reaction time of the overseer does not influence the final time.

Hosting the Speedrun Challenge

Click on the first island on the game so the screen looks like the image above. This is the starting point for all players.

Tell the player to start the timer first and then click on the play button and after three islands with three maps on each, stop the timer when the game says Mission complete for the third time.

It is possible to cheat by jumping from the first island to the third, so the overseer should make sure the player clicks on the second island and plays all 9 maps instead of just six.

If the player beats the best score, write the new best score on a card or a post-it note and write the players contact information (email or phone) on the backside of the card. Tell them they can also participate in a raffle to win a trip to CERN. If they are interested, write their contact information on the raffle list.

Give the player a small prize if they manage to best the previous best time.

Additional tips

You can host the challenge on just one day or on as many days as you like during Nordic Game Week.

The players can try to beat the best score as many times as they like. Just make sure they go at the end of the line between speedruns (if there is one).

The players can use their own phones to practice if there are too many players.

If you have the technical skills and resources, you should consider projecting the mobile phone on a tv-screen (using a cable, Chromecast or AirPlay) to make the speedrun entertaining for players waiting in line.

After the Nordic Game Week

Send us the Contact information for the best player (only)

The Winning Time

And the total number of participants from the Raffle list (just the number)

We will use the number of participants in the raffle to determine the venue where the winner is. We will then contact you for the sign-up sheet to randomly select the winner for the trip to CERN, so keep it safe!

We are happy to announce that the Finland-based learning game studio Lightneer will sponsor Nordic Game Week 2017!

The company’s first game – Big Bang Legends – is a mobile game that integrates both casual and fun gameplay with educational content about particle physics. Lightneer was very excited about the Nordic Game Week and they are donating Big Band Legends themed merchandise to organizations participating in the Nordic Game Week Competition. The first 200 organizations to register for the competition will receive small prizes (stickers, reflectors etc.) to share with their patrons and TEN competition participants can win a huge bag of fun, including card games, board games, t-shirts, hoodies and more!

Big Bang Legends’s learning content includes basic hierarchies of particle physics, culminating in an understanding of the Periodic Table of Elements. The content has been developed together with experts from CERN.

At CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, physicists and engineers are probing the fundamental structure of the universe. They use the world’s largest and most complex scientific instruments to study the basic constituents of matter – the fundamental particles. The particles are made to collide together at close to the speed of light. The process gives the physicists clues about how the particles interact, and provides insights into the fundamental laws of nature.

We are very excited to have Lightneer as a patron!

Details on the Nordic Game Week Competition will be announced in the following weeks!

Registration is open to all interested organizations who wish to promote a positive gaming culture and game literacy.Nordic Game Week will collect and display all registered events on a Nordic Game Week Map.

This year the Nordic Game Week map will only display the venue and a link for your own site, where you can more easily keep the information updated. Please create a web page or a Facebook event for your local Nordic Game Week event before registering.

Registered events should be open to the public. You can also participate in a Nordic Game Week Competition. Details for the competition will be announced at a later date. You can take a look at last years competition here.

The results are in and the highest scores in each country are shown below. The winner of the competition will receive a new OnePlus 3 phone and a free board game or a digital game (up to 100 euros in value) and the best in each country will receive a free game of choice.

Best in Finland 98 621 – OnePlus 3 phone and a free game of choice
Best in Norway 90 752 – Free game of choice
Best in Denmark 77 221 – Free game of choice
Best in Iceland 72 740 – Free game of choice
Best in Sweden 21 199 – Free game of choice

Winners will be contacted directly for choice of game. Thank you all for participating in the Nordic Game Day Competition!

What an amazing turnout this year! We have a 16% increase in participation overall, and a 1000% increase in Icelandic libraries from last year! Libraries are still the biggest faction with 173 libraries participating this year (up by 23 libraries from last year). Other organizations make up the rest with 58 organizations. By tomorrow 231 different organizations have hosted a total of 436 separate Game Days open to the public!

Keep in mind a lot more organizations host closed events, such as schools and day care centers. All in all, what a great year and we hope to see you all next year and to bring in a new friend 😉